Thales Watchkeeper WK450

2014 MODERN AIRCRAFT DRONE TECHNOLOGY

• 1 History of Thales Watcher WK450
• 2 Thales Watchkeeper WK450 Specification
  • 2.1 Basic
  • 2.2 Production
  • 2.3 Roles
  • 2.4 Dimensions
  • 2.5 Weight
  • 2.6 Performance
  • 2.7 Performance
  • 2.8 Armor
  • 2.9 Changes

History of Thales Watcher WK450

The Thales Watchman WK450 is the British Army derivative of the Israeli Elbit Hermes 450 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) - or simply "drone" in mainstream media. The British military is currently working with Thales to develop the Watcher, which is designed to be used for intelligence gathering, surveillance and targeting of battlefield missions in the near future.

The program began in 2005, and has since experienced three years of service entry delays and escalating project costs, to the point that Watchkeeper has been threatened with termination or complete reorganization. In its current form (October 2013), the Watcher is undergoing active training with British personnel in Wales and awaits full certification for use in manned airspace in southern England and will be used in conjunction with artillery training (Boscombe Down).

During operations in Afghanistan, the British Army has relied on General Atomics' MQ-9 Reaper drones and Israel's Hermes drones, although these have been seen as interim solutions that do not fully meet the Army's needs be tailored.

The Thales Watchkeeper uses a single Wankel rotary engine to drive the propeller assembly at the rear of the fuselage. The body is in the shape of a cigar with an aerodynamically refined nose cone. The wings are shoulder-mounted straight attachments, while the tail has a pair of vertical tails that slope outwards, eliminating the need for horizontal tails. The landing gear consisted of a three-leg arrangement, with each leg controlling an individual wheel. The landing gear is stationary and does not retract.

An optical assembly is located just behind the nasal bone for 360-degree traversal. The air intake was installed at the extreme end of the bottom of the fuselage for intake of the Wankel engine unit.

Since the Watcher is (yet) certified to carry any type of external munitions, its payload of up to 150kg consists primarily of optics and special mission equipment to function as intended on the battlefield. The configuration of the onboard engines and fuel depots gave the aircraft a roughly 17-hour mission duration window before returning to base.

Overall, the Watchkeeper system is suitable for low/medium altitude flight and acceptable long dwell times to complete its mission range.

Although the project started in 2005, the Watchkeeper product has progressed relatively slowly. A purchase order for 54 systems was announced in 2007, although the first flight of the test vehicle was not recorded until April 2010, significantly delaying the official expected delivery date of the operational-grade Sentinel (the drone was officially scheduled to enter service in September 2010). ). 2010).

As things stand, the system won't be operational until sometime in late 2013, or more likely 2014.

The Watchkeeper test aircraft has accumulated 1,000 flight hours in over 600 test flights.

Thales Watchkeeper WK450 Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes